A new survey shows that UK citizens waste an average of three and a half years of their lives being angry. That's a lot of wasted time on frustrating customer service calls and cleaning dog poop off your shoe. Psychologist Guy Winch suggests that you can't avoid feeling angry about these minor annoyances, but there is a better way to deal with them.

Winch suggests that letting things go is a nice thought, but it isn't going to reduce our irritation with the problem. So is going into attack mode the answer? We've already learned that venting frustration will only make anger worse. Winch says the best approach is to take those complaints and turn them into actions:

Every minor irritation and annoyance we face presents an opportunity for us to take action and create change. Instead of complaining about the things that frustrate us and wasting years of our lives feeling angry and irritated, we could channel our frustration into solutions. If we all did so, if we all complained effectively about the 'small stuff', there would be much less of the 'small stuff' to sweat.

To some extent, it's common sense that you need to direct your anger at the right sources and be calm and constructive when doing so. Nonetheless, it's one of the things we forget the most because it's easy to get lost in anger. Looking at anger as an opportunity to make things better, however, can create a good habit of complaining effectively rather than just venting frustration and making the situation worse for everyone involved.